Mexican drug gangs force Mexican citizens to U.S.

18042010

Due to the extreme violence and continued death threats in border towns of Mexico, people are beginning to plead for political asylum in the United States:

Photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times The opening in a rusty metal fence built in recent years to keep illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States has a new nickname among local residents, Jurassic Park Gate, a nod to the barrier in a 1993 movie that kept dangerous dinosaurs at bay in a theme park. Today, it separates Fort Hancock, Tex., from a brutal drug war in El Porvenir, Mexico. The influx of people trying to escape the violence has disrupted the area's peaceful rhythms.

In recent weeks, people of small towns bordering the U.S. have swarmed the border stations in search of asylum from drug dealers who have burned homes, maimed and killed citizens. Some of the drug gangs have even gone to the extreme effort of announcing in large banners in the middle of town squares that if anyone was left after the Easter Holiday they would be hunted down and killed, which prompted the Mexican Federal Police to occupy these towns immediately to avert the threat. (These people who are not involved in anyway with drugs are targeted by the drug gangs for little or no apparent reason, but mostly for individuals who have seen just a smite of the gang’s crime is enough reason for their murder.)

Photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times El Porvenir, Mexico, can be seen just over the border wall from Fort Hancock, which is home to about 2,000 people in ramshackle trailer homes, weather-battered recreational vehicles and well-kept brick houses.

The law states that people seeking asylum from drug violence in Mexico doesn’t’ necessarily mean they will be granted safety in the U.S. but at times, the U.S. does provide “temporary safe haven for those people in their countries in immediate danger, this is called “temporary protected status” or TPS and is only asylum status and can’t be regarded as a qualification for a green card according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.